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Oschersleben 2014
Oschersleben 2014 was the second round of the 2014 DTM Championship at the Motorsport Arena in Oschersleben. 'THE 2014 DTM RACES AT A GLANCE', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 2014), http://www.ww.dtm.com/en/Races/DTM-Dates-2014/calendar.html, (Accessed 19/05/2015) The race itself was the held on the 18th of May, and saw Mercedes-Benz pick up their first points of the season, as well as the second new winner in the DTM in two races.'Maiden DTM victory for Christian Vietoris', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 18/05/2014), http://www.ww.dtm.com/en/News/Maiden-DTM-victory-for-Christian-Vietoris.html, (Accessed 19/05/2015) Indeed, it was Mercedes' Christian Vietoris whom claimed his maiden victory, despite having stopped in the pits during the formation lap for wet tyres, a move which cost himself a significant amount of time. Mike Rockenfeller and Edoardo Mortara completed the podium, after rookie had impressed early on. Marco Wittmann started the race from pole, after Miguel Molina was excluded from qualifying for the second race in a row.'Molina loses pole position', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 17/05/2014), http://www.ww.dtm.com/en/News/Molina-loses-pole-position.html, (Accessed 19/05/2015) Background With no driver changes between the rounds, the focus heading to Oschersleben was on the rise of the rookies among the seven champions on the 2014 grid. Wittmann, in his second season, won the opening race at Hockenheim two weeks earlier, ahead of (former double champion), Adrien Tambay (another youngster) and defending Champion Mike Rockenfeller. The only team not celebrating after Hockenheim were Mercedes, as none of their cars managed to score a point in the opening race. BMW Team RMG led the Teams' standings after Wittmann's victory, with Team Phoenix the first of the teams to have had both of their drivers in the points at Hockenheim. All four BMW teams took points in Hockenheim, in stark contrast to Mercedes' teams, without a point between them. They were led by Pascal Wehrlein, in only his second DTM season, who missed out on points at Hockenheim by nearly 20 seconds. Entries Below is the entry list for the : Qualifying A dry qualifying session was held on the Saturday before the race, and was split into three sessions.'Pole position for Audi driver Miguel Molina at Oschersleben', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 17/05/2014), http://www.ww.dtm.com/en/News/Pole-position-for-Audi-driver-Miguel-Molina-at-Oschersleben.html, (Accessed 19/05/2015) Q1 lasted 13 minutes and saw the bottom five drivers eliminated, before the 11 minute Q2 session saw the removal of the next lowest ten. Q3 was then a pole position shootout for 9 minutes, featuring the eight fastest drivers from Q2. Q1 Adrien Tambay was the man on the move in Q1, setting an early time that remained the fastest of the first session, as 22 of the 23 cars set times within two seconds of each other. It was not, however, a happy atmosphere at Mercedes, however, as four of their cars, including both entries, as well as Paul di Resta and Robert Wickens were dumped out of qualifying]]. Joining that quartet was Timo Glock, who struggled to set his car up for qualifying, and struggled to match the pace of stable mate . Q2 Tambay saw his name atop the timesheets in Q2 as well, setting the fastest time of the weekend at 1:20.011, three tenths quicker than anyone else. He was joined by three more Audis in the Team Phoenix pair, Miguel Molina, and team mate Edoardo Mortara, as well as three BMWs, led by Marco Wittmann. Da Costa impressed with the third fastest time of the session, with Bruno Spengler taking the final Q3 spot. Augusto Farfus and Pascal Wehrlein therefore missed out on Q3 by little more than tenth of a second. Q3 Tambay's Q2 time was then edged out by Molina in the final session, as he set a time of 1:20.007 to take provisional pole, joined by Wittmann on the front row. Tambay just couldn't find his Q2 pace, losing over half a second to his earlier time, although he missed out on Wittmann's second place by just 0.003s of a second. Da Costa, meanwhile, secured fourth on the grid for the second race running, beating three the three DTM Champions still in the session: Timo Scheider, Mike Rockenfeller and Spengler. Mortara rounded out the top eight, as Molina looked to have taken his third DTM pole. Yet, it was not to be for the Spaniard as, for the second race running, he was excluded from the qualifying result for a technical infringement, this time on his rearwing. The rearwing end plates were found to be longer than the regulations allowed (around 1.5mm longer) on Molina's Audi RS5 DTM, which saw him pushed to the back of the grid. Post-Qualifying The results of qualifying for the race are shown below. ** Molina excluded from the final result after Q3. Race There were no modifications to the starting order after Molina's penalty had been applied, meaning Marco Wittmann and Adrien Tambay shared the front row for the second race in succession. The morning before the race had seen a series of showers dampen the track, although the amount of water on the track was negligible. That was until the start of the formation lap, when a sharp shower caused Christian Vietoris and Daniel Juncadella to forfeit their starting positions to swap for wet tyres. Report Wittmann pulled away smartly to lead into the tight first corner, as Tambay was jumped by Timo Scheider off the line. was another to make a good start, but found himself on the outside of the first corner, meaning, although he was briefly second, da Costa stayed fourth. Further down, Miguel Molina was on a mission, pushing his way through the field from the very back of the grid, while Juncadella and Vietoris had to wait at the end of the pitlane until the field had cleared turn three. Gary Paffett and Jamie Green were battling over ninth for a few laps, before Paffett pulled Green past Augusto Farfus for eighth. Edoardo Mortara was put into a spin by Pascal Wehrlein, the latter receiving a five second penalty for putting Mortara to the back of the field. Molina was on a mission, entering the top ten by lap five, and setting the fastest lap on lap eight, while, at the back, Vietoris and Juncadella were losing time hand over fist to the rest of the field. Back at the front, da Costa slid past Scheider for third, Tambay having got past while Mortara was spun round, while Paffett set his sights on sixth. That was until Paffett sent himself into a spin, dropping him down to twelfth, while di Resta did likewise, although he was on his own at the time. Their spins prompted an mass exodus into the pits for wet tyres, although two drivers soldiered on at the front. Da Costa stayed out for another two laps, while Paffett remained on track, as the safety car emerged for the first time in 2014. Robert Wickens was the cause, having been hit by Molina as the Spaniard exited the pits, which damaged his front suspension and aero, meaning he could not get around turn four. Paffett continued on, however, remaining on track as the safety car pulled in three laps after Wickens' incident. The Brit was immediately passed by Wittmann into the first corner, and continued to lose places as the lap progressed. Wittmann, however, slid wide when trying to out brake Paffett into the first corner, avoiding gettign stuck in the gravel, but tumbling down the order as he rejoined. Tambay led the race from Scheider as they came to the start finish line, while Paffett trundled into the pits as the pitwindow opened on lap 17. His stop came after a second safety car, caused by two cars. The first collision saw Timo Glock try an ambitious move to take and Rockenfeller, which ended with the Deutsche Post liveried BMW hitting the Audi of Rockenfeller. Glock then slid into the gravel and into retirement, as Rocky continued and lost several places, while also struggling with a sudden loss of temperature in his tyres, having had to run across the grass. That caused him to slide into the back of Maxime Martin in the braking zone into the following turn, which, in turn, caused the Belgian to pit Paul di Resta into a gravel trap, although the Scotsman escaped and continued. Juncadella's race was ended after a spin, which left Vitaly Petrov with no where to go, hitting the front of the Spaniard's car after the race restarted again. Juncadella made it back to the pits to retire, although the safety car was looming after another incident a few laps later. Jamie Green, meanwhile, made his way past to take the lead, and had built an eleven second lead until several incidents in the space of a lap brought the safety car back out onto the circuit. The first saw da Costa spin into the gravel, having made contact with Scheider in their battle for third, both continuing while Molina was forced off the circuit by di Resta in their battle, having stopped for their mandatory pitstop earlier. Yet, it was Pascal Wehrlein who ultimately caused it, having slid wide into turn one and beached himself in the gravel. The pit window was extended, and Green's lead obliterated. Vietoris was the man on the move after the restart, as he climbed from fourteenth to the lead of the race with just fifteen minutes to go, the numerous safety car periods meaning the race distance could not be completed in the 1:15:00 time window a DTM race was given. He gained mainly through others stopping for their compulsory stop, a fact which had not been kind to Green, as he fell to ninth. Vietoris, meanwhile, was being hunted down by Rockenfeller as the race came to a close. But, fate was on the young German's side, as he claimed his maiden DTM victory by six tenths of a second from Rocky, handing Mercedes a surprise victory despite their horrible start to the season. Edoardo Mortara pushed hard late on to establish himself in third, while di Resta completed the shock result for Mercedes by taking fourth, despite his eventful day. For Green, however, his day was ultimately ruined by contact and a spin, which sent him into the barrier before the end of the race. Wittmann, meanwhile, crossed the line dead last, having come in for a late stop which caught out his team, meaning he lost a lap. Results The final race result is shown below, with the fastest lap setter in italics, and bold highlighting the pole sitter: * Indicates a driver started on soft or "option" tyres. Indicates a driver started on hard or "prime" tyres. Milestones *First race victory for Christian Vietoris. Standings Victory meant that Christian Vietoris leapt up to second in the Championship, having bettered Marco Wittmann's nineteenth place finish with fifteenth at Hockenheim. Yet, it was Mike Rockenfeller lading the way in the Championship, with his tally of 30 seeing him hold a five point margin. was next, with Adrien Tambay completing the top five. Four drivers left Oschersleben tied on eight points, a group led by Bruno Spengler. Team Phoenix were now at the summit of the Teams' Championship, their advantage coming through the eight points Timo Scheider had secured (along with Rockys tally). Team Abt and Abt Sportsline swapped places (although are essentially the same team), although Vietoris' victory meant that the first of the Team HWA entries was now in second, after Paul di Resta secured fourth. Gary Paffett's four points also meant that the second HWA outfit was ninth and last of the teams that had scored. Audi, meanwhile, secured the lead in the Manufacturers/Brands Championship, having taken four of the six podium positions on offer in 2014. Mercedes were also off the mark, but were now 20 points behind BMW. Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown. References Videos and Images: * References: Category:Races Category:2014 Races Category:Oschersleben